Stanford meet sees dollars, not sense

Published 4:00 am, Friday, April 27, 2001

NOW THAT Marion Jones has committed to running the 200 meters in the June 9 Grand Prix meet at Stanford, organizers should come up with a suitable name for the darn thing. Don't hold your breath, though.

Unless a title sponsor is found, the meet will go by the generically witless name of the U.S. Open. In a perfect world, it should be called the Payton Jordan Classic, after the longtime Stanford track coach who retired in 1979. But it won't. Reason: $$$$$$.

"I'd love to call it the 'Payton Jordan,' " meet director Nancy Ditz said. "We're not going to because we're trying to maximize the money we make and pass it on to the athletes. We'd love to have more sponsor money. We want to build the event so it attracts the world's greatest athletes. To do that, we have to keep building sponsorships."

'Tis a pity. There's a bronze plaque of Jordan's likeness at the entrance to renovated Cobb Track & Angell Field. The next logical step would be to name the meet for him, a gesture the old coach, now living in Santa Barbara, would surely appreciate.

Jordan, who coached the United States team in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics,

was more than a coach. A world-class sprinter in his youth (World War II denied him the opportunity to compete in the Olympics), Jordan remained active in masters events into his mid-70s.

Naming the June 9 Grand Prix meet after him makes sense. Too bad it doesn't make dollars.

MOVING ON: While Jones lends the June 9 meet instant cachet, other athletes are being signed up to fill out the fields. Olympian and Stanford grad Chryste Gaines will run the 200 with Jones. Terrence Trammell, Olympic silver medalist in the 110 hurdles, will run his specialty.

"With Grand Prix I status, we will have exciting fields in a lot of events, " Ditz said. "Our lack of a title sponsor is not affecting our ability to have good fields. We're trying to put a package together for athletes to stay here the week after the Prefontaine meet (May 27). For European athletes, it's a chance to pick up Grand Prix points on the West Coast before they go back to Europe."

CCSF IS HEARD FROM: At last week's Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut (Los Angeles County), sprinter Tania Woods of City College of San Francisco won her heat in the 200 in 23.44 seconds. It's a decent time but well off her best of 22.88, which she ran in 1999 in winning the California State Meet while at Skyline High in Oakland.

Of note is the woman who finished second to Woods at Mt. SAC, Angela Manuel.

She's the daughter of Chicago White Sox manager Jerry Manuel. With a time of 23.66, Angela could show the Sox a thing or two about running the bases.

As for Woods, she was out of school last year and is now a freshman at CCSF.

She leads all California community college athletes in the 100 (11.49) and 200 (23.44).

AROUND THE TRACK: The mile run at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., will be something to see, as it features the world record-holder, Hicham El Guerrouj (3:43.13) of Morocco, and the Virginia high school student, Alan Webb,

who is chasing Jim Ryun's national prep record (3:55.3). For El Guerrouj, it will be only his second race in the United States after his disastrous fall in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. . . . After a 4 1/2-year layoff, Mike Powell is talking comeback. The world record-holder in the long jump at 29-4 1/2, Powell has lost 35 pounds and resumed training while working as a volunteer coach at Cal State Fullerton. If all goes well, he'll compete at the Modesto Relays on May 12.